From the owner on down to the hot-dog salesmen at Quicken Loans Arena, there are questions about what is going on with the Cavaliers.
Their lackluster start, however, hasn’t prevented them from remaining right in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race.
As of Friday afternoon, there were two teams above .500 in the East — Indiana and Miami — the two teams expected to meet in the conference finals.
Two other teams were right at .500 — Atlanta and Washington.
Three other teams expected to contend — New York, Brooklyn and the Cavs — were lagging well behind the leaders. The Cavs were 1 1/2 games behind No. 8 Charlotte.
“The way the East is struggling, if you sit at .500, you’re sitting in third place or something like that,” Cavs coach Mike Brown said. “It’s not a surprise to me.”
Brown can’t seem to figure out why much of the East is struggling, but he knows it has given the Cavs a reprieve.
“I don’t know why the Eastern Conference is the way it is, but I’m happy,” he said. “Everyone in the East feels that way. You look at Brooklyn and New York. I think they are one or two games out of the fourth spot. It keeps everyone on their toes.
“Normally, by the time December rolls around, you’re thinking, ‘We’re so far out of this. We don’t have a chance.’ Guys stop playing. I don’t see anybody stopping any time soon.”
The balance of power has shifted to the West, even though the Heat has won the last two championships and the Pacers are a legitimate threat to win it all.
“It would make sense that the better players play (in the West),” Cavs guard Jarrett Jack said. “But the All-Star Game, the East normally wins. The NBA champion has been from the East the last two years. There’s usually a lot of parity in each conference.
“I don’t know why it’s like that. We’re trying to do our best to hit our stride and make our way up the standings.”
And, they are showing some signs of life in the last week.
“We truly believe we haven’t played our best basketball,” Brown said. “We are getting better. I’m sure a lot of teams feel the same way.
“We’re headed in the right direction. Being in the East, we still have an opportunity to make the playoffs. That’s definitely a goal of ours.”
The East was 23-57 against the West before last Monday’s games.
“The Eastern Conference this year, it won’t end up as bad, because they’ll play each other more. But man, some of those games right now, it’s embarrassing,” ESPN analyst and former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy told USA Today.
It will take somewhere near 46 wins to make the playoffs in the West this season. The No. 8 seed in the East could be around 38 wins like it was last year with Milwaukee.
Boston is leading the Atlantic Division with an 8-12 record. The winner of the Atlantic will finish no lower than the No. 4 seed by virtue of winning the division.
Conversely, Minnesota is 9-10 in the West, which would be 13th in the playoff race.

Reminiscing to ’99
The Cavs made two first-round picks in 1999. Both were at The Q on Wednesday.
They drafted Utah point guard Andre Miller with the eighth overall pick, and then selected Duke shooting guard Trajan Langdon with the 11th pick.
Miller, 37, is nearing the end of his NBA career. He’s a backup point guard for Denver, his fifth NBA team. He’s 10th all-time in assists and has missed only three games due to injury in his 14-year career.
Langdon, also 37, played three uneventful seasons with the Cavs. Most experts agree the Cavs reached to draft him as high as they did. Had he been picked in the last 20s in the first round or early in the second round, the expectations wouldn’t have been so high. He represents one of the biggest draft flops in Cavs’ history.
His claim to fame came overseas, where he led CSKA Moscow to two Euroleague championships (2006, ’08). Langdon retired as a player in 2011.
He’s now scouting for the San Antonio Spurs.Rumor mill
-- In some people’s minds, when LeBron James’ wife opened up a juice bar in Miami, that closed the door on him returning to the Cavs. Savannah James, the longtime girlfriend and now wife of the four-time Most Valuable Player, celebrated the grand opening of The Juice Spot on Monday. The store specializes in cold-pressed juices. LeBron James could be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
n Bulls point guard Derrick Rose will miss the entire season after having knee surgery. However, he could have come back this season if he chose to have the torn meniscus shaved off. Instead, he opted to have it sewn up, which ended his 2013-14 campaign. According to Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report, “100 percent” of the meniscus was preserved, which is good for the long-term health of the knee. If the stitches hold, Rose should be good moving forward.
-- Obviously, things aren’t going well for the Brooklyn Nets. The first scapegoat was Nets assistant coach Lawrence Frank, who was reassigned to a non-bench role. If you think Frank is the crux of the problem in Brooklyn, you would probably be wrong. The heart of the problem appears to be head coach Jason Kidd, who might be ill-equipped to coach a contending team. They acquired high-priced talent, and then hired someone who hadn’t coached one game at any level? Kidd said he has “different philosophies” than Frank. “When things aren’t going right in football, you see the head coach fire the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator or special teams coach,” NBA TV analyst Greg Anthony said. “In essence, you’re seeing a little bit of that right now. No doubt about it, there is some panic going on in Brooklyn.” Frank was the league’s highest-paid assistant coach at $1 million a season. He reportedly has a six-year deal.
-- Pistons guard Rodney Stuckey is playing lights-out. “Stuckey has been their best player this season (and) the best sixth man in the NBA,” Anthony said. “He’s playing the best basketball of his entire career. I tip my hat to this young man. (The Pistons) went out and brought in Brandon Knight to replace Stuckey, then they brought in Brandon Jennings, and a lot of guys would have started feeling sorry for themselves. He didn’t do that. He said, ‘You know what? I’m going to get better. I’m going to find a way to help this team become better,’ and that’s what he’s done.”
-- Media rumors had the Cavs interested in drafting Maryland center Alex Len in last June’s draft. They wisely passed on the 7-footer, who dropped to Phoenix at No. 5. His surgically repaired left ankle continues to be a source of concern for the Suns, who have totally shut him down. At this time, there is no timeline for his return to the active roster. “I’m trying to keep my focus on things I have control of,” Len told The Arizona Republic. “You just want to play. I’m passionate about basketball. I want to be out there competing with the best players.”
-- There has been a rash of broken hands in the NBA, with Charlotte’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Brooklyn’s Paul Pierce, the L.A. Clippers’ J.J. Redick and New Orleans’ Anthony Davis currently sidelined with the injury. Kidd-Gilchrist has been diagnosed with a fracture to his left ring finger and surprisingly he doesn’t know how it happened on Tuesday against Dallas. “I looked down at my finger and it was (pointing) the wrong way,” Kidd-Gilchrist told The Charlotte Observer.
-- Fans are currently voting for their favorite players for the All-Star team. They Cavs have four players on the ballot — centers Andrew Bynum and Anderson Varejao, forward Tristan Thompson and guard Kyrie Irving — and none will get much recognition by the fans. Irving has an outside shot at making the East All-Star team. Don’t be shocked if Brooklyn forward/center Kevin Garnett makes it strictly from reputation. He was averaging 6.5 points and 7.5 rebounds and was shooting 37 percent from the field heading into Friday’s games. Does he belong on the All-Star team?

Advertisement

About the Author

Bob has covered the Cavs for The News-Herald and Morning Journal since 1995. He's a graduate of Kent State University and New Philadelphia High School. Reach the author at rfinnan@news-herald.com
or follow Bob on Twitter: @BobCavsinsider.